Consider the fact that the United States government has already acknowledged through Child Protective Services intervention that some individuals are not qualified to parent children. Consider also that the United States government currently conducts hundreds of detailed parenting exams across the country daily.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in 2008 alone there were 1.8 million children in the United States whose parents had to pass an exam before they entered the home environment. Reasonably assuming that some of these children were siblings, we can approximate around 1 million parents were required to submit to this testing before taking on their parental responsibilities.
The official title of this exam is The Adoption Home Study. A home study consists of three half-day interviews with a representative of the state digging into every confidential area of the parent's lives, a heath and safety inspection of the home by a state inspector, a thorough inspection of the home by the county Fire Chief, and a complete Federal background check initiated by providing finger prints at the police station. Also required are a minimum of 15 hours of training on topics befitting a soon-to-be parent.
Ironically, the only individuals currently required to submit to this type inquisition are those who truly understand and desire to be quality parents but are, in many cases, medically unable to bear children. With this obvious acknowledgement and precident set by our government I wonder how we could find it so horrifying to suggest that unprepared adults who can become parents by accident be held to the same standards as those of us who fight every day to create a family.
For more details on the 2009 survey of adopted parents, see the USA Adoption Chartbook.
Written by Jess Tryon
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